It’s Time for a 5G Reality Check

Don’t get too comfy with your 4G wireless networks, because 5G is coming. Sure, the flavor of 4G that’s now dominant — Long Term Evolution, or LTE — is plenty fast. But let’s face it; the Internet of Things (IoT) is just a pipe dream if we don’t have 5G capabilities.

Before we can even think about the Internet of Things being a full-blown reality, our service providers need to be faster. In 2012 the average American streamed 450 MB per month. In 2014 that number skyrocketed from 2.2 to 4 GBs. With the amount of content available online growing every day, data consumption is expanding at an exponential rate, and our networks can no longer keep up. 5G is the solution that will make the Internet of Things and innovations like hologram transmissions possible.

Thankfully for us there are a number of companies looking to solve the 5G dilemma and bring Internet that’s 1000x faster to the masses. One such company is Qualcomm. By developing compelling technologies, path breaking innovations, and market leading products, Qualcomm is prepping the industry to meet its very own “1000x challenge” to help bring our connected future to life.

With it predicted that by 2018 worldwide mobile data traffic will increase 11x from current levels, 5G networks will need to be in place in order for machine-to-machine communication to occur. Once we have increased bandwidth, then and only then will IoT be a reality.